Remember Me Review: Pretty Damn Memorable

Who are you really? Are you defined by your memories or your actions? What would it take to simply delete an unwanted memory? Would you want to? Or could you live with it? Are memories meant to be revealed?

Deep in the future, in Neo Paris, memories have become an entire economy. Despite this breath-taking and revolutionary technology, there is strife and violence deep within the city. The key to it all, is a young, confused women. She doesn’t know her history or her past. Her memories have been taken from her. But she remember her name: Nillin. With the burning sensation to find her memories and find out why, she sets off on an mesmerizing, action packed adventure.

Remember Me is a tale that tells a very fascinating and intense story in a rich futuristic world. With an interesting technological universe and hard-hitting combat, it is an adventure certainly worth taking.

STORY:

You are probably thinking of a memory as you read this. It may be good. It may be bad It may make you smile or it may make you angry. Probably today, you’ll make new memories and photograph them on your phone, sharing them to Instagram, and publishing on Facebook.

In Remember Me, memories from your mind are digitized like a digital camera. They can be bought, sold, deleted, stolen, and shared. These memories send sheer emotion to the brain and, in many ways, enhance emotions.

This revolution falls under the mega-corporation, Memorize. As you enter this future, a lone women is imprisoned and about to have her brain completely wiped out. A voice calls and after a harrowing escape, you make it to freedom. She only remember her name and that she is a memory hunter. Her name is NIllin. You begin the daunting quest of discovering your identity in a city with billions of memories.

It took me awhile, a few days, to let the story sink in, and I found myself to really enjoy it! It argues an important perspective of identity, actions, memories, and how they impact humans. I’ll foreworn that it may get rather confusing at one point but as you play and reach the exciting conclusion, all will make sense. The story draws its inspirations from a variety of sci-fi classic films like Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, and an important favorite, Total Recall. In fact, the story of Remember Me and Total Recall (both the 1990 version and 2012 version) are quite similar with the exception that Remember Me, takes it into an entirely new and fresh direction as featured in the gameplay. Throughout the ten plus hours spent, an incredible adventure unfolds and reaches a very satisfying conclusion.

GAMEPLAY:

Combat is where the game is both unique, cool, but a little weak. The combat focuses around the acquisition of pressens. Each pressen performs a specific role and can be placed to build unique combos. The pressens are gained over time and each pressens has a special ability. Power, healing, and cool down. You can customize your combos to meet your specific play style. One highest difficulty, this is essential.

A variety of enemies appear and require their own strategy. The combat is very physical with a sense of gravity and impact. You may find yourself a little frustrated at times, especially on the higher difficulty. In addition, I noticed in some environments, the enemies create a claustrophobic combat strategy. I found myself stuck in some spots as there was hardly room to dodge. However, the combat is quite satisfying. Flowing with the game’s environment, Nillin’s special attacks are interesting and inspired by computer terminology. For example, DDoS attacks paralyze your enemies and allow attacks to be made. Nillin will also go through cinematic, Uncharted-like platforming and cinematic sequences, taking in the beauty an sophistication of the city. Coupled with the music and atmosphere, the gameplay is solid.

The only drawback is that there could have been more variety to enemies, gameplay, and combat level design. Nillin does has pretty interesting bossfights but toward the end of the game, regular combat feels like a re-tread of enemy types. Also, some of these enemies will squeeze you into an area where there is hardly any room to evade attacks, leaving many minutes of restarting at the same checkpoint. I played the game on the highest difficulty and noticed this. It isn’t a terrible problem but it can get rather annoying.

Where the game truly distinguishes itself is in the mechanic of “remixing” memories. At certain points of the game, Nillin will tap into the very core of memories in a particular individual. Going to a particular point, the memory is reconstructed and all sorts of points can be altered. What didn’t happen can be made to happen. And that person being remixed will believe every bit of it. If there is a memory of someone alive, Nillin can create a memory of that person dead. Nillin truly feels like a memory hunter here, and sort of a detective, as she puts the bits and bytes of information together and “remixes” them. I wish there were more of these moments. They happen a few times during the course of the story and each time is very satisfying.

PRESENTATION:

Presentation wise, the music graphics, and visual art is fresh and vivid. The music especially, composed by Olivier Deriviere, features a blend of electronica, orchestra, and intended distortions and skipping to reflect the processes of digitized memories. The city of Neo Paris is stunning, beautiful, and crisp. It is a shame that more of it isn’t explored but for what it is, it is exceptional. The voice acting and acting are brought out in a solid way, immersing players into the story. The colors palletes and crisp portrayal of the digital world is interesting as computer overlays interact with the surroundings.

OVERALL:

Remember Me is successful in itself because of how unique it is. Capcom and DONTNOD Studios had an opportunity to create a game that would be just like every other game, but transformed it into something elegant, interesting, and action packed in a formula that can stand its own. This game deserves achievement for being different, original, and breath-taking. If you are look for something incredibly intriguing with an interesting premise, check this one out! You won’t soon forget it.

Roberto Nieves

" I'm Not a program. I'm a user." Sam Flynn, Tron: Legacy (2010)

To best describe is that ambition and a willing to do something are two of my strongest traits. They've allowed me to go places and do things. Extraordinary things. Maybe not change the world but make someone feel pretty damn good.

I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember. From the days of the Nintendo SNES and the SEGA Genesis to the PlayStation 3 and the Playstation Vita, gaming has been a big part of me. I like them for their art, creativity, gameplay, and most importantly, FUN! Fun is what matters. What's the point in playing a game if it is not fun? Everything else is secondary.

Now I game on Sony's platforms as a member of the PlayStation Nation. I'm a gaming enthusiasts and I respect other games and their platforms (At least when they are not restricting me)

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